In order for a radio user operating in a communication system such as a trunked radio system to make an individual call such as a call alert (feature which pages another radio directly), private call (feature which establishes a private call between two radios such as the Private Conversation.TM. feature found in systems sold by Motorola, Inc.), or another type of individual call to another radio user, he must know the radio identification number (ID) of the radio to be contacted (target radio). In present radio systems, the target radio's ID can be selected from a pre-stored ID list located in the radio (source radio) trying to contact the target radio. It can also be retrieved as the "last received ID" if the target radio user had previously called the source radio, or it can be directly entered through the radio's keypad, if the source radio is so equipped and radio user knows the radio ID of the other radio, which can be a problem in bigger communication systems.
Numeric keypads and/or radio displays needed to make individual calls may not be practical for smaller or less expensive radio designs, making it difficult, if not impossible, to initiate individual calls using these types of radios. With existing radios, two radio users cannot engage in an individual call with each other unless one of the two knows the individual ID of the other radio, or has it stored in his call ID list as mentioned previously. This makes it difficult for new users or someone using a borrowed radio to initiate an individual call to another radio in the system.
A need thus exists in radio communication systems for a method of capturing and storing radio IDs in order to be able to make individual calls to other radio users in a radio communication system.